1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a self-aligning concrete building block that incorporates insulation and nail strips onto a face of the block, forms for making the blocks, and building structures formed with the blocks.
2. Background of the Invention
Various concrete building structures are made with concrete blocks. When constructing the walls of these structures each individual block must be manually aligned with a level and square. Traditional blocks are filled with grout and joints are finished with mortar. This method of construction is susceptible to shear and uplift forces.
When the walls of traditional concrete blocks and grout are made it is common to frame the inside with a wood or steel structure. This framing is then filled with insulation and further provides a surface to attach drywall. This process of wall construction involves many steps and is very labor intensive.
Traditional concrete blocks are also designed to be easily handled and stacked by one person. With modern industrial construction equipment it would be more efficient to have larger blocks that would be machine stacked. In addition, prior concrete block structures suffer from one or more of the following problems or disadvantages: (1) in need of manual alignment, (2) susceptible to shear and uplift forces, (3) require that interior framing walls be built, (4) lack insulation, (5) require many steps, (6) are very labor intensive, and (7) are not designed with modern construction machinery in mind.
Examples of prior concrete block systems include U.S. Pat. No. 0,010,827 to Vanhoutte (2006); U.S. Pat. No. 0,257,481 (2005) to Shaw; U.S. Pat. No. 0,223,669 (2005) to Cymbala; U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,867 (2004) to Gresser; U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,994 to Ruggeri; U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,256 (1994) to Hammer.
Each of these systems suffers from one or more of the previously described problems or disadvantages.